IMER Bergen

03/03/2025

Call for Abstracts

We are excited to invite you to submit individual paper proposals by 31st March, 2025 to the mid-term symposium of the project Tackling precarious and informal work in the Nordic countries – project and the final symposium of Migration, care and ageing –research group of the Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care

Symposium on Precarities and Temporalities in Migratory Contexts
26th to 27th, August 2025
University of Helsinki, Finland

This symposium brings together scholars who research different aspects of precarities, paying attention to how various forms for insecurity and uncertainty in life shape migrants’ and racialised minorities’ life circumstances and experiences. Discussing the social ordering related to migration from a lifetime perspective rather than through administrative categories helps broaden the scope of migration studies by deepening the analysis of the social and political dynamics of time.

Precarity is structural, situational and, for many, especially for migrants and racialised minorities, an enduring condition of life. Sociologists and social scientists have for long acknowledged that time, temporalities and rhythms are simultaneously central to the organisation of the society and everyday lives yet commonly taken for granted. Thinking about time and temporality requires the consideration of various levels and multitudes including for instance planetary, human and social movements, physiological rhythms, temporalities of life and death, of the environment and social collectivities and cultures (Adam 1995). Similarly, there has been a ‘temporal turn’ in migration scholarship (e.g. Cwerner 2001; Baas & Yeoh 2018) that has focused on the role of time and temporalities in migration controls (e.g. Griffiths et al., 2013; Tazzioli, 2018), on the production of temporal regimes (e.g. Maury 2021; Sanò et al. 2024) and borders (e.g. Maury 2022; Tazzioli 2018) and related experiences, such as waiting (e.g. Bendixsen & Eriksen 2018; Brun, 2015; Griffiths 2014; Jacobsen et al. 2021; Rotter 2016; Näre et al. 2024). For migration scholars time has become an important perspective for the analysis of power dynamics, governance structures, individual experiences and forms of agency and asymmetric relations (Sanò et al. 2024) as well as experiences of precarity.

Thus, precarity is not only material but also ideational, shaping not just economic and legal status but also a person’s ability to form a sense of belonging in the present. Complex versions of time are in operation as individuals attempt to establish belonging, with ideas about the future influencing their ability to do so in the present (May 2019). This suggests that it is essential to examine how threatened belonging, exclusion, and precarious futures intersect with economic and social vulnerability. The moral and emotional labour required to sustain social relationships across distance highlights how migration-related precarity is not only material but also deeply relational (Kara & Wrede 2022). There is a risk that scholars situate migrants in a temporality different from non-migrants, and as ‘out of time’ (Çağlar, 2016; Jacobsen et al. 2021, Ramsay 2019). This overlooks the ‘temporal rhythms of displacement’ and precarity induced by neoliberal restructurings and global capitalism shared by migrants and non-migrants alike (Ramsay 2019, 385).

We invite individual paper abstracts that examine various aspects of precarity in migratory contexts related to, but not limited to, temporalities, labour, mobility and older age. Our confirmed keynote speakers include Professor Bridget Anderson (University of Bristol, UK), Professor Vanessa May (University of Manchester, UK) and Professor Catherine Degnen (Newcastle University, UK).

The symposium is on site and a 50-euro conference fee (for early-bird registration before 31.5.2025) and 80-euro conference fee (for late registration by 31.7.2025) will cover lunch and refreshments during the conference.

Please submit your 250-300 word abstract by 31.3.2025 here: https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/133879/lomakkeet.html

For enquiries regarding the symposium, please contact: [email protected] and for more information check our website: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/symposium-precarities-and-temporalities-migratory-contexts

17/08/2024

The Nordic Migration Research Conference 2024 in Bergen ended yesterday. Thank you to all of the (more than) 270 participants for coming to share their knowledge and work. A huge appreciation to Kari Hagatun, Felicity Okoth and Inge Tesdal for their amazing organisation which - together with the wonderful volunteers, and the great people working at Hotel Terminus - contributed to everything running so smoothly. Thank you for inspiring keynotes by Bridget Anderson, Ayhan Kaya and Shahram Khosravi and thank you to the Panelists Lena Näre, Marry-Anne Karlsen, Zachary Whyte and Oksana Shmulyar Green for being part of the panel Precarity of Migrants in the Nordic Countries: Conditions, Challenges and Research Approaches. Finally, thank you to the Scientific Committee consisting of Synnøve Bendixsen, Department of Social Anthropology, UiB, Hakan Sicakkan, Department of Comparative Politics, UiB and Marry-Anne Karlsen, Department of Social Anthropology, UiB.

More than 250 migration scholars from around the world are gathered for the 22nd Nordic Migration Research (NMR) conference, taking place at the University of Bergen, 14-16 August.

11/06/2024

Welcome to our last IMER Lunch seminar this semester!

We beg to differ. The political emergence of un-Danish Danes.

Time: Wednesday 19th of June 2024, 12.00 - 13.00
Place: Ulrike Pihls hus: Seminar room 2C

Until recently thought of as broadly ethnically homogenous Denmark, now indisputably includes minority populations born and raised in Denmark, the vast majority with a Muslim background.

04/04/2024

REMINDER: IMER LUNCH SEMINAR
From revolution to exile: Understanding the activist trajectories of Syrians across time and space

Time: Tuesday 9th of April 2024, 12.00 - 13.00
Place: Online through this zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87410992541?pwd=7tFfFNU5PduqxGeE6W5Fadi1HZ9f7C.1

What happens to political dissidents after they go into exile? Do they continue to engage with their homeland causes or do they disengage altogether seeking a new life in their new whereabouts?


About the Seminar
In this seminar, Amany Selim will discuss the findings of her doctoral thesis which focuses on the case of Syrian activists who were forced out of their country in the aftermath of the Syrian uprising of 2011. Based on biographical interviews made with Syrian activists living in Berlin and Oslo, Selim will analyse how Syrian activists' trajectories have evolved over time and across different contexts of exile, drawing on a comparison between the two cities. The seminar will be an elaboration of her thesis findings which unpack the interlinkages of time and space in influencing political participation in exile, drawing attention to the contributory value of homeland activism to integration.

Amany Selim holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Bergen. She is currently an independent consultant working on digital rights in the Middle East.

For questions about the event or if you experience problems registering, etc., please contact: [email protected]

It will be great to know if you plan to join us using the registration link https://skjemaker.app.uib.no/view.php?id=16535661

12/03/2024

NMR PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP

IMER jr. Bergen and NNMF jr. would like to invite all junior scholars who are attending or participating in the 2024 Nordic Migration Conference in August to join us for a one-day pre-conference workshop titled “Precarity in Migration Research: Interdisciplinarity, Methodology and Networking” on August 13, 2024, between 09.00 - 16.00.

Join us for a one-day pre-conference workshop on the day before the 2024 Nordic Migration Conference.

11/03/2024

IMER Lunch Seminar
Navigating displacement: cartographic strategies for ecologically and politically exposed territories.

Time: Thursday 14th of March 2023, 12.00 - 13.00
Place: Bergen Global, Jekteviksbakken 31

It will be great to know if you plan to join us using the registration link https://skjemaker.app.uib.no/view.php?id=16423446 . A light lunch will be served.

About the Seminar

What do we see behind a map? How do modern mapping strategies approach displacement and how can this be visualized and communicated? How is architecture and urbanism connected with shifting environments of global movements?

In this Seminar, Sofya Markova will present her research on exposed territories worldwide through an architectural lens. The presentation will look at how environments of displacement are depicted and perceived architecturally. Markova will also discuss the strategies and tools for more critical and comprehensive cartographic mapping that captures the richness of these environments, incorporating all layers of their history and all voices within them.

About the presenter
Sofya Markova is an architect with a master's degree from Bergen Arkitekthøgskole. Her interdisciplinary projects focus on shifting environments, intertwining artistic research with critical mapping, storytelling with the emergence of form.

05/02/2024

REMINDER: THE 22ND NORDIC MIGRATION RESEARCH (NMR) CONFERENCE CALL FOR PAPERS

The politics of mobility and precarity – and the alternatives
14 -16 August 2024- University of Bergen, Norway

The 22nd NMR conference focuses on the complex entanglements of mobility and precarity in the context of international migration. We welcome paper contributions that engage with the conference’s theme and fall within the scope of the accepted panels/workshops until 29th February 2024.

More information on the call and the list of accepted panels/workshops can be found here.

IMER Bergen is honoured to organize the 22nd Nordic Migration Research Conference at the University of Bergen, Norway on 14 -16 August 2024. The conference is organized in cooperation with Nordic Migration Research and will be hosted by the University of Bergen.

13/12/2023

Postdoctoral Position: ‘Contested knowledges in and through Asylum litigation’ (ASYKNOW)

There is a vacancy for a 3-year postdoctoral position at the University of Bergen connected to the research project ‘Contested knowledges in and through Asylum litigation’ (ASYKNOW) funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant.

ASYKNOW will investigate the ways in which knowledge about asylum seekers and migration is mobilized, contested, and constituted through asylum litigation in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany. The postdoc is expected to work closely with the project leader to conduct a legal archaeology study of selected court cases in the Scandinavian context. Legal archaeology focuses on the legal journey of a case and examines it in its socio-historical context. As the task involves analyzing legal case documents from different Scandinavian countries, the position require proficiency in a Scandinavian language.

Deadline 5th of February 2024.

Feel free to distribute the positions in your respective networks!

Job title: Postdoctoral Research Fellow position at the Department of Social Anthropology (253139), Employer: University of Bergen, Deadline: Monday, February 5, 2024

13/12/2023

Twice Displaced: Fleeing Syria, Fleeing Sudan

Welcome to a conversation with “double-refugee” Salam Kanhoush.

Time: Tuesday 19th of December 2023, 12.00 - 13.00
Place: Bergen Global, Jekteviksbakken 31

Accounts of refugees fleeing Middle Eastern countries seem to abound in recent years. However, many have had to flee twice, three-times, or more. Multiple displacements across many countries complicates the challenges experienced by refugees who are seeking a durable solution. These “double-refugees” often find adjusting to new host-countries and spaces especially difficult as they attempt to engage in substantive home-making along the way.

Join us as we learn from the experiences of Salam Kanhoush, a Syrian refugee who fled Sudan in 2023. Salam will share the challenges he has experienced in his attempt to find a safe haven outside of two war-torn countries, his present insecurity, and his future hopes.

The conversation will be moderated by CMI Research Director and IMER-affiliated researcher Sarah Tobin.

A light lunch will be served.

For questions about the event please contact: [email protected]

Accounts of refugees fleeing Middle Eastern countries seem to abound in recent years. However, many have had to flee twice, three-times, or more. Multiple displacements across many countries complicates the challenges experienced by refugees who are seeking a durable solution. These “double-refuge...